Press release
dated 25.06.2025, No. 108
District sets new record for city cycling again
Largest team from Gymnasium Geretsried
District of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen. For the 7th time, the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen took part in "STADTRADELN - cycling for a good climate", the largest nationwide campaign to promote cycling. Once again this year, the district's citizens pedaled so hard that a record was set. After breaking the 300,000 mark for the first time in 2024, the almost 2,000 cyclists cycled 308,161 kilometers this year between 17 May and 6 June.
Even rain, wind and cool temperatures did not deter the participants. On the contrary, 1,981 cyclists took part in the campaign, more than ever before. They were organized into 126 teams, including clubs, authorities, schools, companies and families. The largest team this year was from Geretsried Grammar School. Here, 265 pupils and teachers took part in the campaign. The second-largest team also comes from the school family: even primary school children cycle diligently, as shown by the elementary school in Lenggries, which took part in the campaign with 149 pupils and even made it into the top 10 with 7,251 km. The schools took part in the school cycling event, a competition within a competition, specially organized for the school family.
The entire district collected 308,161 kilometers in this year's city cycling event. "That's as far as 7.5 times around the earth and if we cycle that much more again next year, we'll break the distance from the earth to the moon!" says climate protection and cycling officer Veronika Böhm. As a result, a lot of CO2 was also saved. "If the kilometers cycled had been covered by car, around 50 tons of CO2 would have been emitted," explains Veronika Böhm, illustrating the contribution that bicycles can make to the mobility transition. The main focus here is on short journeys. After all, these make up 58 percent of all journeys made, 43 percent of which are made by car (MiD, 2017). "As a disproportionately high amount ofCO2 is emitted when traveling short distances by car, the savings potential here is particularly high," says Böhm.
The announcement of the winning teams took place on June 23 as part of the festive closing event at the Tölz district administration office. In addition to the winning teams, everyone who pedaled diligently during the CITY CYCLING event was cordially invited to the celebration. In addition to the district-wide award ceremony, the towns of Geretsried and Wolfratshausen also honored their most hard-working cyclists.
At the district-wide award ceremony, the "Team with the most kilometers" category was won unchallenged by WSV Bad Tölz in first place with no less than 15,723 km. In second place this time was the Open Team Bad Tölz - a team that all Tölz residents who did not otherwise have a team could join. The 22 active cyclists in this team collected 6,594 km. The 3rd place in this category also went to Bad Tölz. The employees of the Kommunaler Zweckverband collected 6,519 km during the campaign period.
So that small teams also have the chance to be rewarded for their diligent cycling, the category "Team with the most kilometers per capita" was again awarded. Team "post" took first place with 1759 km. That makes 1,113 km per head. Second place went to the Braun family from Geretsried with 1,733 km, with Hermann Braun, who turned 87 this year, cycling the kilometers almost single-handedly. Third place in this category went to the Böhme Bikers, six of whom clocked up 3,856 km.
After the previously undisputed winner of the school cycling event in the district had to settle for second place last year, Geretsried Grammar School under team captain Jule Steinhaus managed to reclaim first place again this year. Students and teachers collected an incredible 28,614 km together. Bad Tölz secondary school also cycled diligently again and achieved 3rd place with 8,081 km.
Before the award ceremony, cycling officer Veronika Böhm reported on current issues relating to cycling. The starting point for her reflections was society's changing mobility behavior. In contrast to the past, we live in a multi-option society, where home, work, school, stores, doctors, friends and family are often far apart. This means that many people have to travel long distances in their everyday lives, which is why the majority of people make these journeys by car due to the desire for flexibility. City cycling is intended to encourage people to become aware of their own mobility and to think about which everyday routes they could perhaps cover by bike in general or at least occasionally. This could save fuel, improve your own physical fitness and reduce CO2 emissions.
Veronika Böhm also addressed the topic of cycle paths. She said it was important to her to provide information about what was being done behind the scenes. There is more going on here than is often assumed. In the region, it is above all the state building authority in Weilheim that, in addition to its main task of keeping the roads in good condition, is also committed to expanding the cycle path network. The biggest challenges in building cycle paths are nature conservation and land acquisition. However, urban sprawl with many different landowners and nature worthy of protection often make planning and implementation difficult. Nevertheless, there are always successfully implemented projects, such as the recent cycle paths along the B13 from Bad Tölz to Lenggries or between Reichersbeuern and Waakirchen, in which two state building authorities worked together. Another project is currently in the planning stage. A continuous cycle path is to be built from Bad Tölz (Farchet) to Unterleiten, where it would connect to the existing one.
Marlis Peischer
Press Officer / Head of the Press Office
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen District Office